In recent years, the increasing complexity of combat has generated a need for weapons with increased accuracy and which are capable of supporting various accessories, such as flashlights, infrared and night vision scopes, laser spotters, and so forth. Consequently, a wide variety of mounts for rifles and other hand weapons have been developed which permit the mounting of lights scopes and the like on the weapon, often along the barrel.
A few examples are as follows. There is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,484, to Mooney et al., a universal mount for a rifle which is formed to support a series of accessory devices simultaneously. The mount comprises an upper rail, a lower rail, a heat shield, and a retaining clip. When in place, this mount enables the rifle to be used as a weapons' platform, simultaneously supporting a plurality of accessory devices that enhance the operational capabilities of the weapon. A major feature of this invention is that the mount is secured to the barrel so that it “follows” the direction of the barrel when the latter undergoes thermal deformation as a result of firing successive rounds of ammunition, which enables the weapon to remain accurate despite the number of rounds fired or the temperature of the barrel.
A collimator holding device for a weapon barrel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,015 to Baumann, et al., which includes a casing extension on the casing of the weapon, and a longitudinal rail integrally formed on the top of the casing and on the casing extension as a mounting for the telescopic sight.
Another hand-held firearm with a light casing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,486 to Bilgeri et al. This firearm also includes a casing extension having a mounting for a telescopic sight.
There is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,378,237 to Matthews et al. a firearm with target illuminators including a track and slide combination including a slide on the target illuminator and a track structure clamped to the trigger guard on the weapon for that slide, and a releasable slide-in-track stop in the track and slide combination.
Another apparatus for attaching a flashlight to a firearm is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,105 to Teetzel. This apparatus includes a chassis containing a flashlight that can be mounted in various positions, depending on the weapon selected. The weapons factory installed hand grips are replaced by modified hand grips that contain the flashlight electronic controls, water proof activation switches, and power source.
These prior art devices suffer from a number of disadvantages. First, conventional flashlight mounts are substantially cylindrical in cross-section, such that their bottom surface is curved, so they provide no stability if the weapon is leaned upon a wall, for example. Second, often the mounts are relatively small, so as to permit mounting of several different accessories and reduce weight. However, this structure makes it difficult to comfortably grip the weapon while holding the light mount, and often places the user's hand in close proximity to the hot barrel during firing. Third, conventional mounts generally have a selected location along the barrel at which they are affixed. Thus, this location is often not optimal for users of different heights and different arm lengths.
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a flashlight mount for a rifle or other hand-held firearm which is provides a strong grip, and stability for the weapon, and it would be desirable to have such a mount whose mounting location along the barrel is adjustable according to the length of the arm of the user.